America is at a crossroads. We face as many fundamental and fateful decisions as we have in more than a century.

What kind of country are we? What kind of government should we have – and how much should it do for us? What is the nature of our relationship to our government, and to each other? What is America’s role in the world?

An alarming number of Americans have become ominously dependent on the government financially. It’s unfortunate for those trapped by hardship – making it difficult for them to realize their potential as human beings – and wholly unsustainable for the country.

These are some of the many profound challenges we address in this special publication we’re calling “Crossroads for America.”

Through neglect, dispute and shortsightedness, this country has allowed our federal government to swell in size and scope, and our national debt to explode, even as our public infrastructure, economic footing and national security have all suffered mightily.

Our national debt is $20 trillion and rising, and our future unfunded expenditures for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security exceed $100 trillion. Yet, year after year we go on living beyond our means and burdening future generations with our debt – which is patently immoral. All the while, the balance of power shifts perilously from the states to the federal government, and from the legislative branch to the executive.

Our southern border is nearly lawless, our immigration system dangerously chaotic and progress in the war on terrorism inadequate to achieve victory.

How did we get here?

Somewhere along the way, we went down the wrong road. Lured by the siren song of socialism since the days of Wilson and Roosevelt, we’ve traveled innumerable miles from our Founders’ wisdom. We’ve lost sight of the constitutional and Judeo-Christian principles that guided us for some 200 years: limited government, individual sovereignty and liberty, rights granted by God, and more.

Today’s public dialogue also falls woefully short of the spirit of our Founders when they concluded the Declaration of Independence with the words, “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”

It is that spirit with which we must come together as Americans to renew our republic.

We desperately need to return to those guiding principles that made this the greatest nation on Earth. We need to rein in our runaway federal government, reduce the current confiscatory rate of taxation, remove the yoke of government from our economy, reduce our dependence on it, restore our military, secure our border and reclaim our place of preeminence among nations.

We must first understand and appreciate the nature of America, and what makes it exceptional in the pantheon of history. Then we must rededicate ourselves to those principles and practices that have been proven to work over the 241-year American Experiment.

With a new president and Congress, we have a historic opportunity to address these and other challenges facing the nation. President Trump has promised to do so, and we should hold him to it.

We must, as John F. Kennedy implored us, ask not what our country can do for us, but what we can do for our country.

And we must resolve, as Abraham Lincoln put it, that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Crossroads indeed.

William S. Morris III is chairman of Morris Communications LLC.

ABOUT ‘CROSSROADS FOR AMERICA’

This is a special publication about our government, our country, our people and our future. ‘Crossroads for America’ is not attached to an election, a campaign, a movement, a specific group of people or a cause. It is a factual, comprehensive report about where the United States of America stands.
‘Crossroads for America’ is produced by Morris Publishing Group, which owns and operates 11 daily newspapers as well as non-daily newspapers, city magazines and free community publications in the Southeast, Midwest, Southwest and Alaska.